Credit: Ed Uthman
Preclinical research suggests a newly engineered protein can suppress tumor growth and extend survival in a mouse model of lymphoma.
The molecule, called BINDI (BHRF1-inhibiting design acting intracellularly), was designed to trigger the self-destruction of cancer cells infected with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV).
EBV can disrupt the body’s clearance of old, abnormal, infected, and damaged cells. And BINDI works by overriding this interference.
Erik Procko, PhD, of the University of Washington in Seattle, and his colleagues described results observed with BINDI in Cell.
The researchers used computational design and experimental optimization to generate BINDI. The protein was designed to recognize and attach itself to an EBV protein called BHRF1 and to ignore similar proteins. BHRF1 keeps cancer cells alive, but, when bound to BINDI, it can no longer fend off cell death.
By examining the crystal structure of BINDI, the researchers saw that it nearly matched their computationally designed architecture for the protein molecule.
Furthermore, experiments showed that BINDI could prompt EBV-infected cancer cell lines to shrivel, disassemble their components, and burst into small pieces.
The researchers also tested BINDI in a mouse model of EBV-positive lymphoma. They delivered BINDI into cancer cells via an antibody-targeted nanocarrier designed to deliver protein cargo to intracellular cancer targets.
And BINDI behaved as ordered. It suppressed tumor growth and enabled the mice to live longer than control mice.
The researchers said this work demonstrates the potential to develop new classes of more effective, intracellular protein drugs, as current protein therapeutics are limited to extracellular targets.
